There is always a lot of discussion on the effects of throw and deflection. They are two different things, but both are affected by speed, particularly when there is distance between the cue ball and object ball. In the case of deflection, if you’re standing in front of me and push me hard in the center of my chest, I’m going to fall straight back. If you hit me as hard as you can on the right side of my chest, I’m going to spin to the left, and vice versa. But if you just tap me on the right side of the chest, I’m not going to veer off to the left. It’s the same with the effect on the balls. When I shoot a ball with a lot of inside spin, I don’t allow for deflection because I’m not hitting the cue ball hard enough to cause the object ball to deflect. Hit it with moderate speed and see how far it deflects. If it deflects a half diamond, then you need to adjust your aim to send the ball a half diamond to the other side.
When it comes to throw, distance and speed make a big different. The softer you hit the cue ball, the more it’s going to throw the object ball. The harder you hit it, the less it’s going to throw.



To get a better idea of how that works, set up the balls as shown in the diagram, with the two object balls frozen and aimed directly to the side pocket. Place the cue ball as shown. Ghost ball A shows where you need to hit the frozen balls to pocket the 9 using a softer speed without throwing the balls. If you hit it thicker or thinner with soft speed, it’s going to throw the balls.
Now, if there was a ball blocking you from sending you to ghost ball A, the situation changes. If you have to aim at ghost ball B and you use a softer cue ball, the balls will get thrown off line and the 9 will miss the side pocket. But if you smash the shot, you’re not giving the balls enough time to throw the balls off line.
Try this shot on your home table or local poolroom and start to notice how much or how little the balls throw in each situation. Also, remember that the cleanliness of the balls will have an impact on the amount of throw. Dirty balls will throw much more.